ArtRio Sales Report

Gagosian Gallery expressed some trepidation about bringing a massive haul of 80 works by 30 artists with a price tag of $130m to ArtRio. But reports are coming out that they made at least one big ticket sale. The Monet pictured above is said to have sold for $10m during the fair. (This is, of course, only a rumor.)

“It’s a little bit of a risk-taking situation,” said Victoria Gelfand-Magalhaes, a New York-based Gagosian director who worked on the project with her Paris-based colleague Serena Cattaneo. “We don’t know if there’s a market there for works in the $10 million to $15 million price range but we hope if we bring real masterpieces, people will respond.”

The big complaint before ArtRio was the bite taken by Brazil’s import duties on art. Even with local exemptions, the Brazilian government adds 15% to the cost of an art work imported to the country. That may explain the very small number of reported sales like these from Artnet:

Y Gallery: Within the first hour, Jurado had sold a minimal work by artist Ryan BrownSteve Turner:One Rafaël Rozendaal has already sold to a German collector. The others has waiting lists.

If you have any ArtRio sales you want recorded here before the post goes out in our weekly newsletter early next week, feel free to get in touch or use the contact form on the site.